How developers increase difficulty the wrong way

[salaminizer]

largedarryl said:

salaminizer said:

I'm not really a fan of what usually happens in strategy games, where a higher difficulty level means that the AI will get a shitload of bonuses and you'll get penalized in every aspect. I don't play Civilization IV, or Fall from Heaven 2, which is more difficult than Civ4, in a level higher than Prince. at least in King's Bounty the game tells you what happens in Normal or Hard (i.e. things cost more, etc)

 

I wouldn't call Fall from Heaven 2 harder than vanilla Civ4 (unless they can actually fix the AI to work with the added game mechanics).  They made fantastic progress with Civ 4 difficulty levels, but unfortunately you can't program an AI to account for all the different human play styles that attempt to exploit AI weaknesses (AI doesn't adapt, but human continually adapts).

King's Bounty is a fantastic example of how to do difficulty modes.

 

I do agree with the concensus here, most difficulty settings in games don't do the intended purpose.  When I choose hard, I don't want annoying.

well, TBH I picked up Civ4 because it's a good example about the bonus/penalties, but yes, it does manage the AI smartness better than most games.